The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Kate Humble and Gareth Wyn Jones are joined by Josie d'Arby for the third day of the Royal Welsh Show. It's championship day for the very best Welsh cobs, sheep and pigs.
In this three-part drama documentary series, Dan Snow explores the political intrigues and family betrayals between Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Normans that led to war and the Battle of Hastings.
When King Edward the Confessor dies without an heir, it triggers a bitter race to succeed him as King of England. Earl Harold is on the spot and takes the crown. But in Normandy, Duke William believes the throne has been promised to him and decides to invade. Meanwhile, in Norway, the Viking king Harald Hardrada also fancies himself as King of England, and he too puts together an invasion force. Very soon, England will be under attack.
In this second episode Paul O'Grady finds out how our lives outside of work brought us together and sometimes tore us apart. Along the way Paul finds out exactly where his own working values were formed, not to mention those of archetypal working-class lass Lily Savage!
Dr Sam Willis charts the impact of gunpowder on the battlefield, from cannons to the first handheld weapons.
His journey starts in the 13th century with Oxford scientist and monk Roger Bacon, believed to be the first Englishman to write down a recipe for gunpowder. Sam sees one of the largest surviving medieval cannons still in existence - Mons Meg in Edinburgh Castle. He examines a primitive 1400s 'handgonne' in the Tower of London Armouries that seems more like a mini cannon, with no trigger.
Sam tells the story of the Earl of Moray James Stewart who was regent of Scotland having ejected Mary Queen of Scots from the throne in 1570.
Sam next tells the story of the gunpowder plot. He includes lesser-known details of the 1605 attempted attack. For example, Guy Fawkes was discovered not just once but twice. Also the amount of gunpowder is thought to have been far more than was required. Another strange side to gunpowder's story is revealed - the saltpetre men. Gunpowder requires three ingredients - charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre. In the 17th century chemistry was primitive. Saltpetre or potassium nitrate forms from animal urine and the saltpetre men would collect soil where animals had urinated. This meant they dug up dovecots, stables and even people's homes. They had sweeping powers to come onto people's property and take their soil. They abused these heavily and one of the grievances against King Charles I was the heavy handedness of the saltpetre men.
Eventually, the conflict with the king would turn into the English Civil War. A key weapon is this war was the musket. It was so basic blacksmiths could churn it out by the dozen. Sam fires one with the help of expert gunsmith Robert Tilney. He shows both the musket's power and the lack of accuracy. Muskets were inaccurate but the tactic used was to wait until opponents were very close and then fire one huge volley. Sam shows that the musket would then be used as a heavy club.
Gunpowder weapons gave different injuries to swords and arrows. This led to changes in battlefield surgery, and one who was a key influence was surgeon Richard Wiseman. Sam shows that Wiseman had learnt that any cloth or fragment left from a bullet wound could cause infection and kill the patient.
Finally, Sam travels to Saint Malo in France to tell the story of a frightening attack by the British. In 1693, France and Britain were at war and French pirates had been attacking English ships. Captain John Benbow was asked to launch an attack using a ship crammed with gunpowder. Benbow put 20,000 pounds of gunpowder into the ship as well as many other inflammable ingredients - pitch, straw, sulphur, mortars and grenades. He planned to put this 'Infernal', as it was known, right next to the harbour walls of Saint Malo. But as the ship came near it struck a rock and held fast, within a pistol shot of the town. Then the ship exploded. The sound was heard 100 miles away yet a witness claimed 'no life was lost except a cat in a gutter.' The explosion was 'terrible beyond description' and it shows how far the English were prepared to go in the name of national security.
Suzy explores the use, abuse and manipulation of music in the Second World War - from swinging jazz to film soundtracks and from mushy ballads to madcap ballets. The war, she demonstrates, wasn't just a military fight but an ideological battle where both sides used music as a weapon to secure their vision for civilisation.
Suzy reveals how the forces' sweetheart Vera Lynn was taken off air by the BBC's 'Dance Music Policy Committee' for fear her sentimental songs undermined the British war effort. But in Nazi Germany, screen siren Zarah Leander had a hit with a song remarkably like Vera's We'll Meet Again. Meanwhile Nazi band Charlie and his Orchestra reworked Cole Porter classics by adding anti-British lyrics to weaken her morale. Though the Nazis banned jazz at home as 'degenerate', Suzy also explores Occupied Paris's incredible jazz scene. And the film revisits concerts given under extraordinary conditions - not least the performance of Wagner's Gotterdammerung' (Twilight of the Gods), which in April 1945 brought the curtain down on the Third Reich.
Despite Hitler's taunt that Britain was 'Das Land ohne Musik' ('The Land without Music'), Suzy reveals the war work of two great British composers. William Walton's Spitfire Prelude became the archetype for a particularly British form of patriotic music. By contrast Michael Tippett was sent to prison for being a conscientious objector, but his anti-war oratorio A Child of Our Time was showcased at the Royal Albert Hall. The right of people to freely express themselves was, after all, what we were fighting for.
For some, music was a way of transcending desperate circumstances. Suzy examines Olivier Messiaen's haunting Quartet for the End of Time, written amid the desolation of a POW camp. But at Auschwitz, Suzy reveals how music was co-opted to serve the Nazis' evil purposes. Cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch explains how musical ability saved her from the gas chambers. Drafted into the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra, she had to play marches to drive prisoners to and from work and to give a private performance of Schumann's exquisitely innocent Traumerei to the infamous Dr Mengele.
The events of the 20th century show, Suzy concludes, that though we should continue to love and celebrate music, we should also be wary of its seductive power.
Concerned that Cardinal is on to her, Delorme digs into the reasons behind her secret investigation. Meanwhile a dangerous, sadistic couple are roaming the streets for a victim.
Woody Baldwin, a small-time thief, gets caught in the centre of Eric and Edie's sadistic world when he breaks into their basement dungeon and finds Keith. Meanwhile, Cardinal and Delorme's personal issues threaten their new partnership and Cardinal takes big risks in the investigation that put him at odds with Dyson.
THURSDAY 26 JULY 2018
THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0bc6b70)
Series 1
26/07/2018
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.
THU 19:30 Royal Welsh Show (b0bc20zb)
2018
Episode 4
It's the final day of the Royal Welsh Show and the non-stop action continues with Kate Humble and Gareth Wyn Jones. They meet prize-chasing creatures great and small, from shire horses to giant snails.
THU 20:00 Australia with Simon Reeve (b01y0fx9)
Episode 1
Simon's adventure starts in the magnificent 'red centre' of the continent and continues onwards through south Australia, via the extraordinary Indian Pacific railway until Simon reaches the west coast city of Perth.
On the way, he joins an Aussie rancher in the parched outback and takes part in a spectacular camel round-up. This mad adventure, involving specially adapted off-road vehicles and a chopper, is part of an ongoing effort to stop the damaging spread of up to a million feral camels across the country.
Simon also passes through Australia's wine country and to the lucrative tuna-fishing city of Port Lincoln, and he investigates the impact these trades are having on the environment. In Western Australia, he joins a 21st-century gold rush - part of the resource boom that has made Australia one of the richest countries in the world.
Finally in Perth, Simon discovers a full-scale British invasion. Working in a mine or driving a lorry can bring a salary of £100,000 a year, as evidenced when Simon meets a former binman from Hull who is now living the dream, with a beautiful house in the sun, private pool and his very own boat.
THU 21:00 Size Matters (b0bcv22w)
Series 1
That Shrinking Feeling
This two-part special presented by Hannah Fry shows that when it comes to the universe, size really does matter. Hannah takes the audience into a thought experiment where the size of everything can be changed to reveal why things are the size they are.
Having discovered in the first episode that making things bigger ends in disaster, in episode two, Hannah is going the other way by asking whether everything could, in fact, be smaller. But going smaller turns out not to be much safer...
First, we shrink the Earth to half its size - it starts well with lower gravity enabling us to do incredible acrobatics, but things gradually turn nasty as everyone gets altitude sickness - even at sea level. Then we visit Professor Daniel Lathrop's incredible laboratory, where he has built a model Earth that allows us to investigate the other effects of shrinking the planet to half size. The results aren't good - with a weaker magnetic field we would lose our atmosphere and eventually become a barren, lifeless rock like Mars.
In our next thought experiment, we shrink people to find out what life is like if you are just 5mm tall. We find out why small creatures have superpowers that seem to defy the laws of physics, meet Jyoti Amge, the world's smallest woman, and with the help of Dr Diana Van Heemst and thousands of baseball players reveal why short people have longer lives.
Lastly, the Sun gets as small as a sun can be. We visit the fusion reactor at the Joint European Torus to find out why stars have to be a minimum size or fusion won't happen. And if our Sun were that small? Plants would turn from green to black, and Earth would probably resemble a giant, frozen eyeball.
Which all goes to show that size really does matter.
THU 22:00 In Search of Science (b03bjpcy)
Frankenstein's Monsters
Professor Brian Cox guides viewers through 350 years of British science to reveal what science really is, who the people are who practise it, and how it is inextricably linked to the past, present and future of each and every one of us.
In the first part, Professor Cox grapples with science's darker side, asking why, when science has done so much for us, it often gets such a bad press. Starting with the original Frankenstein - the grisly 19th-century tale of George Foster's hanging and subsequent 'electrocution', Brian confronts the idea that science can go 'too far'. From the nuclear bomb to genetic modification, British science has always been at the cutting edge of discovery, but are British scientists feckless meddlers, or misunderstood visionaries whose gifts to humanity are corrupted by the unscrupulous?
THU 23:00 The Great British Year (p01dfksf)
Original Series
Spring
Spring marks the start of an epic race for life where timing is everything; trees explode with blossom and mornings fill with the magical chorus of birdsong. Long-tailed tits frantically build nests whilst, in our oceans, seahorses sway to a graceful courtship dance.
As we celebrate Easter, a stoat mother hunts the young rabbits to feed her own playful young. As spring becomes summer, guillemot chicks leap from their cliffs to begin life at sea, and this year's young prepare for life alone.
THU 00:00 Cardinal (b08ftdw6)
Series 1
Keith
When Woody Baldwin's body is found hastily disposed of, Cardinal and Delorme are able to connect it to Eric Fraser, and Eric to Katie Pine and Todd Curry. They know they have their killer - now it's a mad dash to find him before he murders Keith. Meanwhile, Cardinal meets his daughter Kelly when she makes a surprise trip home to visit her mother Catherine - but where is she?
THU 00:40 Cardinal (b08glcy9)
Series 1
Catherine
Cardinal wonders if he and Delorme are still missing a piece of the puzzle. He digs deeper and goes to the pharmacy where Edie works and finds something very disturbing. Delorme concludes her investigation of Cardinal and it's not good.
THU 01:25 Australia with Simon Reeve (b01y0fx9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 02:25 Size Matters (b0bcv22w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 27 JULY 2018
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0bc6b7n)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b0bch2t8)
2018
English Elegy
Three of the most loved English composers, Hubert Parry, Gustav Holst and Vaughan Williams, reflect on a country transformed by war at the beginning of the 20th century.
Parry, best known for his setting of national favourite Jerusalem, is celebrated with Symphony No 5, a work full of hope that paints a picture of England before the outbreak of the First World War. This peaceful idyll of England is echoed by another of the UK's most popular works, Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending, featuring American violinist Tai Murray.
The second half of the evening evokes the shattering effect of the outbreak of the war - Holst's Ode to Death and Vaughan Williams's Pastoral Symphony reflect both composers' experiences of the horrors of the First World War.
The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales are conducted by Martyn Brabbins. Petroc Trelawny presents.
FRI 21:40 Top of the Pops (b0bcvl31)
A look back at the year's TOTP, introduced by Tony Blackburn, first shown on 27 December 1971. Featuring T. Rex, The Tams, Slade, The Rolling Stones, and Rod Stewart and The Faces.
FRI 22:05 Mick Jagger - Whistle Test Special: It's Only Rock and Roll (b0bcmmvl)
David Hepworth interviews Mick Jagger about his career with The Rolling Stones and his solo work. Includes film clips and videos spanning Jagger's career.
FRI 23:05 BBC Proms (b0bcmbws)
2018
Pioneers of Sound
Groundbreaking British composer Anna Meredith presents this special Proms tribute to the godmothers of electronica, the pioneers of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The celebration kicks off with music by Delia Derbyshire - most famously remembered for bringing the world the Doctor Who theme in its full electronic glory - and finishes with the premiere of Daphne Oram's revolutionary Still Point, lovingly pieced together from recently discovered archive material and performed by Shiva Feshareki on turntables. Music by artists including Laurie Spiegel, CHAINES and Suzanne Ciani, performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra under conductor Robert Ames, emphasises the power of this legacy.
FRI 00:30 The Rolling Stones at the BBC (b01p1pmf)
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Rolling Stones we delve into the BBC vaults to deliver some timeless Stones archive. From the early days of their career and some unforgettable performances on Top of the Pops with the Last Time, Let's Spend the Night Together and Get Off of My Cloud through the late 60s and early 70s era of prolific song writing when the band were knocking out a classic album every other year and offering up such classics as Honky Tonk Women and Gimme Shelter.
The late 70s brought a massively successful nod to disco with Miss You and the early 80s a stomping return to form with the rock 'n' roll groove of Start Me Up. Peppered amongst the performances are snippets of wisdom from the two main men - the Glimmer Twins, aka Mick and Keith. Plus as a special treat, some lost footage of the band performing 19th Nervous Breakdown on Top of the Pops in 1966 - recently discovered in a BBC documentary from the 1960s about women with depression.
FRI 01:15 Northern Soul: Living for the Weekend (b04bf1lf)
The northern soul phenomenon was the most exciting underground British club movement of the 70s. At its high point, thousands of disenchanted white working class youths across the north of England danced to obscure, mid-60s Motown-inspired sounds until the sun rose. A dynamic culture of fashions, dance moves, vinyl obsession and much more grew up around this - all fuelled by the love of rare black American soul music with an express-train beat.
Through vivid first-hand accounts and rare archive footage, this film charts northern soul's dramatic rise, fall and rebirth. It reveals the scene's roots in the mod culture of the 60s and how key clubs like Manchester's Twisted Wheel and Sheffield's Mojo helped create the prototype that would blossom in the next decade.
By the early 70s a new generation of youngsters in the north were transforming the old ballrooms and dancehalls of their parents' generation into citadels of the northern soul experience, creating a genuine alternative to mainstream British pop culture. This was decades before the internet, when people had to travel great distances to enjoy the music they felt so passionate about.
Set against a rich cultural and social backdrop, the film shows how the euphoria and release that northern soul gave these clubbers provided an escape from the bleak reality of their daily lives during the turbulent 70s. After thriving in almost total isolation from the rest of the UK, northern soul was commercialised and broke nationwide in the second half of the 70s. But just as this happened, the once-healthy rivalry between the clubs in the north fell apart amidst bitter in-fighting over the direction the scene should go.
Today, northern soul is more popular than ever, but it was back in the 70s that one of the most fascinating and unique British club cultures rose to glory. Contributors include key northern soul DJs like Richard Searling, Ian Levine, Colin Curtis and Kev Roberts alongside Lisa Stansfield, Norman Jay, Pete Waterman, Marc Almond, Peter Stringfellow and others.
FRI 02:15 Mick Jagger - Whistle Test Special: It's Only Rock and Roll (b0bcmmvl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:05 today]
FRI 03:15 Top of the Pops (b0bcvl31)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:40 today]
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
1066: A Year to Conquer England
20:00 WED (b08h7zsb)
1066: A Year to Conquer England
01:25 WED (b08h7zsb)
Andrew Marr's History of the World
20:00 TUE (p00xnr47)
Archaeology: A Secret History
21:00 SUN (p0109jny)
Archaeology: A Secret History
02:30 SUN (p0109jny)
Australia with Simon Reeve
20:00 THU (b01y0fx9)
Australia with Simon Reeve
01:25 THU (b01y0fx9)
BBC Proms
19:00 SUN (b0bck3nf)
BBC Proms
19:30 FRI (b0bch2t8)
BBC Proms
23:05 FRI (b0bcmbws)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 MON (b0bc6b4y)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 TUE (b0bc6b59)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 WED (b0bc6b60)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 THU (b0bc6b70)
Cardinal
23:20 TUE (b08bphs2)
Cardinal
00:00 TUE (b08cfgps)
Cardinal
00:00 WED (b08d9p35)
Cardinal
00:40 WED (b08f2zkr)
Cardinal
00:00 THU (b08ftdw6)
Cardinal
00:40 THU (b08glcy9)
Classic Soul at the BBC
01:00 SAT (b0074pvv)
Crossing England in a Punt: River of Dreams
21:00 MON (p00y6r6q)
Crossing England in a Punt: River of Dreams
02:15 MON (p00y6r6q)
Forest, Field & Sky: Art out of Nature
01:30 SUN (b079ckkf)
Henry VIII's Enforcer: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell
00:30 SUN (b01t03ky)
Hidden
21:00 SAT (b0bb3j22)
In Search of Science
22:00 THU (b03bjpcy)
Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
21:00 TUE (b0bc6f86)
Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema
02:45 TUE (b0bc6f86)
Mick Jagger - Whistle Test Special: It's Only Rock and Roll
22:05 FRI (b0bcmmvl)
Mick Jagger - Whistle Test Special: It's Only Rock and Roll
02:15 FRI (b0bcmmvl)
Mountain: Life at the Extreme
19:00 SAT (b093x4gb)
Mountain: Life at the Extreme
02:00 SAT (b093x4gb)
Natural World
01:15 MON (b01nhwyz)
Nature's Miracle Orphans
20:00 MON (b0736p7l)
Northern Soul: Living for the Weekend
01:15 FRI (b04bf1lf)
Paul O'Grady's Working Britain
21:00 WED (b038xk4n)
Paul O'Grady's Working Britain
02:25 WED (b038xk4n)
Rich Hall's Presidential Grudge Match
22:00 SUN (b0828lpl)
Rise of the Continents
23:15 MON (b0368kb2)
Rise of the Continents
00:15 MON (b036ks6f)
Royal Welsh Show
19:30 MON (b0bc1x1v)
Royal Welsh Show
19:30 TUE (b0bc1x8c)
Royal Welsh Show
19:30 WED (b0bc1zhj)
Royal Welsh Show
19:30 THU (b0bc20zb)
Six Wives with Lucy Worsley
23:30 SUN (b085zjww)
Size Matters
21:00 THU (b0bcv22w)
Size Matters
02:25 THU (b0bcv22w)
Smashing Hits! The 80s Pop Map of Britain and Ireland
00:00 SAT (b0bbyy1w)
Storyville
22:00 MON (b0bcqwtg)
Storyville
01:45 TUE (b00srf2g)
Sword, Musket & Machine Gun: Britain's Armed History
22:00 WED (b0888mjv)
The Chopin Etudes
20:35 SUN (b008wmkw)
The Chopin Etudes
20:42 SUN (b0bf19kz)
The Great British Year
23:00 THU (p01dfksf)
The Lavender Hill Mob
22:00 TUE (b01gklz6)
The Rolling Stones at the BBC
00:30 FRI (b01p1pmf)
The Undiscovered Peter Cook
23:00 SAT (b0830jyr)
Top of the Pops
22:00 SAT (b0bbzsv3)
Top of the Pops
22:30 SAT (b0bbzsyc)
Top of the Pops
21:40 FRI (b0bcvl31)
Top of the Pops
03:15 FRI (b0bcvl31)
Tunes for Tyrants: Music and Power with Suzy Klein
23:00 WED (b099229f)
Vienna: Empire, Dynasty and Dream
00:45 TUE (b08651j3)
Wild
20:45 SUN (b00jd9yx)
Wonders of the Monsoon
20:00 SAT (p026glqm)
Wonders of the Monsoon
03:00 SAT (p026glqm)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b0bc6b7n)